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I'm happy to see the old gang again, but it's been long enough since I watched season 2 that I legitimately forgot The Silver even existed, and even now that he/she/it been name-dropped, I still can't remember anything about it except Margery hates it and.. something... happened? With... something?

Is it bad that I remember season 1 better, and it's been a whole extra year since I saw that?

Seems like the Sereiden got a major upgrade from Season 1 to Season 3 (wasn't it already destroyed by Alastor's flame by the way?). J.C. Staff is really trying to avoid all the screw up on the story that they made and start as if nothing happened

Location: Somewhere over the rainbow, in a house dropped on an ugly, old woman.

Ah, it's been such a long time, I almost have forgotten what went on in S2, heh. The down side to series that take year+ long breaks. But things kinda came back to me here. Seems like a decent episode, and decent start to a season 3. Definitely raises a ton of questions, and puts a twist off the ending of S2, which you don't quite see coming.

My most major question is: where did Yuji go, and why did he seemingly join up with Bal Masque? There has to be something more to their goals, and Yuji feels he can accomplish his new goal by allying with them. It almost seems like Yuji wants to completely end the Crimson Realm, or seal it off completely, so Flame hazes like Shana will be spared eternal combat.

at last.... i watched again this series last 2 years (the first one i watched on tv )
The connection between the 1st ep (final) and the last ep (2nd) was really cemented.
Shana's smile was of course what we thought of happy ending but in a sudden, Yuji was gone...

It's ok because apparently JC staff is trying to pretend it didn't happen more or less.

Now this is getting annoying. If you don't know what you're talking about, then it's wiser to not say anything about this matter.

How do you know that they are trying to pretend like it didn't happen? How can you say this after one episode? They actually flashed back to some scenes of the Statue of Pride arc (final arc of season II) in this episode after all. Or did you miss this?

They won't forget about any event that happened in season II, including the fillers. The plans of Bal Masque involving Konoe Fumina and the Statue of Pride will make sense soon enough as well. It's true that these things did not happen in the novels, but there is a good reason why Bal Masque did these things and the anime will explain this soon enough.

Just be patient and watch how this season will proceed. Not everything will be served on a silver platter right away. They will deliberately keep some things shrouded in mystery in the beginning.

Here are some really short summaries of season II for those who forgot what happened. I wrote down what's canon and what's filler as well.

Spoiler for summary of what happened during season II:

episodes 1-2: partly filler, partly canon
They used the first two episodes to find out that Yuji had a keeper on the Reiji Maigo.

This happened differently in the novels, but the effect is the same.

episodes 3-7: partly filler, partly canon
Yuji is training to get control over his power of existence and Konoe Fumina appears. Shana and co think she's a tomogara, but she appears to be human.

Everything revolving around Konoe fumina is filler, but Yuji's training is canon.

episodes 8-9: canon
A story from the past in which we get to see how far Margery Daw would go to get revenge on the silver. We find out Yuji has a silver flame.

This is all canon.

episodes 10-15: mostly canon
Pheles, who created the Reiji Maigo with Johan, appears and tries to take it in order to save Johan, who is inside the Reiji Maigo. Even Pheles didn't know the silver was inside it and nearly gets killed because of it.

Konoe Fumina turns out to be a clone of Hecate made in order to keep an eye on the Reiji Maigo. She had to gather emotions for another plan as well. Hecate and Konoe put a tracker device/seal on the Reiji Maigo.

Johan restores Pheles' power of existence power using the Reiji Maigo and sends her on a mission. We still don't know what that mission is. She gives Kazumi the hougu 'giralda' which is supposed to summon her using all of Kazumi's power of existence.

The things revolving around Konoe Fumina are filler, but everything revolving around Pheles and Hecate is canon.

Episodes 16-17: mostly canon/partly filler
Everyone chooses their own paths they will take from now on. Yuji starting to train with Blutsauger.

Again, the memories revolving around Konoe Fumina are filler, but the rest is canon.

episodes 18-21: canon
The battles against Zarovee, Bifrons and Sabrac

This is all canon.

episodes 22-24: mostly filler, partly canon
Shana and Kazumi send Yuji a love letter and made him choose between them.

Bal Masque steals the Reiji Maigo in order to create a huge tomogara, the Statue of Pride, using the Reiji Maigo as the heart, and Silver with the memories of Konoe Fumina as the brain. Shana and co beat Bal Masque in the end, Silver appears to be defeated as well.

In the end Yuji appears to choose Shana, but he suddenly disappears and says that his world has changed a lot that day.

The love letters and Yuji suddenly disappearing are canon, the battle against the statue of pride is completely filler.

at last.... i watched again this series last 2 years (the first one i watched on tv )
The connection between the 1st ep (final) and the last ep (2nd) was really cemented.
Shana's smile was of course what we thought of happy ending but in a sudden, Yuji was gone...

You know what... the absentee referencing tone of the pilot episode of season 3 could have been bloody brilliant if the transition between seasons was smoother. So yes I echo the sentiments of others because the lack of of a more distinct continuity makes the episode's presentation and disjointed narrative that switches between characters and scenes to be a bit jarring.

That said, if you are able to fill in the gaps between seasons yourself using material or imagination, the episode's use of disjointed referencing to an event that we aren't able to see, forcing us to piece together this massive event on our own, was a rather gutsy and unique move considering the shows usual flow. It could have been a completely gripping and suspenseful if there was something in between to ease most of us back into the world of Flame Hazes and Crimsons.